Being a social media manager is not exactly a walk in the park. Especially when expectations run high, one must be constantly on the ball. Keeping track of daily, weekly, or monthly tasks becomes a real challenge. One way to deal with everything that needs to be done and all that needs to be taken care of, is the classic checklist.

I love checklists, because they help me stay organised. If you are one of those people who forgets things, a checklist will really help you too. If you are new social media manager, you might want something that will allow you to learn by remembering what is important.

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So, here is MY pretty complete checklist I created for social media managers who want to stay on top of things. Add your own items as necessary or delete some of mine – naturally everyone’s list will differ, but here’s something to start out with.

In case you are wondering about my tasks, let’s take a look at the list and I will explain each item.

Daily

1. Check for social channel messages / comments – Respond

Every morning, the first thing you should do is see if you need to attend to any messages or comments from your fans. If you are required to seek permission for your answers, do so immediately. Otherwise simple answer as usual – that means, as soon as possible.

2. Assess the effectiveness of previous day’s posts

Take a look at what response / engagement you received from your previous day’s posts. Keep this information for your monthly assessment. Use this information to tweak your copy and/or creative elements.

3. Assess the relevance of planned posts

Do you have any posts planned, that shouldn’t be? For example, could your audience be experiencing extreme weather conditions while you post something about about how great the weather is? Has anything happened since the day before, that might cause your post to be totally irrelevant? Could you use the result of a bog football game to create a post, instead of publishing the one you had planned?

4. Spy on the competition – make notes

Keep a keen eye on the competition. For ideas, or real-time marketing opportunities. If you have identified a big event that could be used for real time marketing, you should be the first to use it.

5. Check that posts for the day are prepared – scheduled properly

Mistakes do happen, and sometimes scheduling errors can occur. Make sure you’ve double checked everything, especially if you have posts on a schedule.

Weekly

1. Assess the effectiveness of previous week’s posts

Keep an eye on what worked and what didn’t in the previous week. See if you can improve something. It’s all about getting a better feeling of what you did right or wrong.

2. Take a quick look at the analytics – if you’re running a campaign you should do this more often

Keep an eye on your KPIs, making sure you’re keeping up with your strategic goals. Is something not working? Tweak it. Change it.

3. Meet with close team and discuss week’s tasks / issues

Meet with your closest team members, and brief them on the week to come, what to watch out for, what needs immediate attention or handling. This is your chance to strengthen your team and their collective efforts. Even getting people in the same room once in a while strengthens their team dynamic. A good social media support team needs to be aligned.

4. Scan the news for new developments that could potentially affect your efforts

A major political announcement or an upcoming big event might “steal your thunder” if you too are planning something big. Make sure you are prepared for all eventualities. You need to be agile if you are to succeed.

On a weekly basis, it’s good to try to involve employees in any brand advocacy efforts. Perhaps even create a weekly scoring system for those employees who get involved more. Rewards are optional. This is your chance to get people involved. Contrary to what many might believe, a strong employee advocacy program reaps great results.

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Monthly

1. Create a monthly social audit of your brand / your client’s brand

Once a month, you should take a closer look at your brand’s social presence and audit it. A month is a long time in “social media” terms – make sure your time is being spent right. You might want to move this task to a bi-monthly or quarterly schedule. It always depends on the length of time that you are willing to stick it out.

2. Look at your KPIs and assess your strategy

As you would on a daily or weekly basis, you need to assess “where this is going”. Are you fulfilling your goals?

3. Create content plan – Fill calendar

Add content to your content plan/calendar. If you don’t already have one, you can download our template here. After you have edited all necessary materials, at least once a month, you should fill up your content calendar with posts. This is your final plan which you will use during any particular month. Some of you might move this to a weekly schedule although it wouldn’t be very practical if you have a lot of back-and-forth with your client / superiors.

Meeting with your client or your immediate superiors is important to keep the trust going between you. If you are working for a client who you speak to mostly over the phone, a monthly meeting will personalise the relationship a lot more. It is also a great chance to discuss future actions and your client’s upcoming events.

5. Meet with full team and set out monthly goals / changes based on client meeting

Once a month, you should also meet with your full team to brief them on whatever needs to be done or changed in the next few weeks. If you have a pitch coming up, or a new marketing campaign, they should know early enough!

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Now, you could always add to this checklist and include different timeframes for different items. As I mentioned earlier, you might be more comfortable doing an audit once every 3-4 months. Some social media managers might even be happy looking at their KPIs once or twice a month. I have added additional time-frames to the template just in case.

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George is an experienced Media Communications professional, digital enthusiast, and Co-founder & Chief Instigator at Gadgetografo.gr – a product-centric blog about gadgets, apps, and technology crowdfunding projects. At the moment, among other things, he helps people and companies use the internet to their advantage.